People
Principal Investigator
Paul Handali
B.S., Trinity College, 2018
Email: paul.handali@utexas.edu
Paul was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, and was raised there untill he was 11 years old, after which he returned to his passport country of Indonesia. For college, he moved to the US where he obtained a BS in chemistry at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, with a minor in Japanese. While at Trinity, he worked with Dr. Timothy Curran developing organometallic models of beta-sheets. He joined the Webb group in Fall 2018, interested in developing methods of attaching proteins to abiotic surfaces without loss in protein structure or function.
Jake Fink
B.S., Georgia Gwinnett College, 2018
Email: jacksonfink@utexas.edu
Jake grew up in Suwanee, Georgia and graduated from Georgia Gwinnett College with a BS in Biochemistry in 2018. During his time at GGC he studied the binding of neuromelanin to Parkinsonian agents. He spent a year following graduation as an ORISE intern at the United States Environmental Protection Agency in Durham, North Carolina where he worked on in vitro neurotoxicity assays of PFAS compounds and other industrial products. He joined the Webb Group in the spring of 2020.
Diane Madeksho
B.S., University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 2021
Email: dmadeksho@utexas.edu
Diane grew up in Memphis, TN and attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry in 2021. At UTC, she worked with Dr. Jisook Kim to study lysozyme modifications induced by naphthoquinones. After a brief stint working in industry, Diane joined the Webb group in Fall 2022 to study biomimetic surfaces for enzyme-based sensing.
Haley Sachse
B.S., UT Dallas, 2023
Email: hs26936@my.utexas.edu
Haley grew up in Dallas, Texas and received a BS in biochemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas. As an undergraduate, she used 13-carbon NMR to study metabolic pathways of in vitro cervical cancer cells, endometriosis cells, and glioblastoma cells under the supervision of Dr. Lloyd Lumata. Haley joined the Webb group in the Spring of 2024. She is interested in developing membrane-based synthetic cell models to study peptide and nucleic acid permeation of a variety of diseases and organisms.
Undergraduates
Jessica Hector
Jessica grew up in Cedar Park, Texas, and is currently pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry and a certificate in forensic science at the University of Texas at Austin. She joined the Webb group in the Fall of 2023 to study sterols in lipid bilayer vesicles.
Dr. Lauren J. Webb
Joseph & Jeanne Lagowski Professor in Chemistry
Associate Chair for Graduate Studies
A.B., Bowdoin College, 2000
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 2005
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University, 2005 - 2008
Office: FNT 2.104A
Email: lwebb@cm.utexas.edu
Student office: FNT 3.134
Frank Jermusek
B.S., University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2017
Email: fajermusek@utexas.edu
Originally from the Twin Cities area in Minnesota, Frank earned his BS in Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2017. During this time, Frank worked in Dr. William Fahl's laboratory studying the efficacy of PrC-210 as a reactive oxygen species scavenging molecule. Frank handled mice for a tumorigenesis study and learned DNA damage analysis. In the Spring of 2019, Frank joined the Webb laboratory to investigate electrostatic interactions between proteins. bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
Robert Ellis
B.S., Brigham Young University, 2021
Email: robertellis@utexas.edu
Robert grew up in Hillsboro, Oregon and attended Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, graduating with a BS in Chemistry in 2021. While at BYU with Dr. Kara J. Stowers, he researched different heterogeneous catalysts for the hydrogenation reaction of ammonia borane. In the Webb group, Robert is interested in the study of protein fibrillization and how it can be controlled on gold surfaces.
Taylor Hays
B.S., St. Edwards University, 2023
Email: tayhays@utexas.edu
Taylor has lived all over Texas but considers Austin home. During her undergraduate studies, she worked with Dr. Santiago Toledo investigating the role of superoxide dismutae in amyloid lateral sclerosis. She also participated in a research experience for undergraduates at UT Austin in the summer of 2022, where her research involved genetically modifying E. coli to enhance itaconic acid production. She graduated with a B.S. in chemistry in 2023. She joined the Webb group in the Spring of 2024, and she is interested in studying how membrane composition and peptide structure impact the permeation capability of cell penetrating peptides.
Alumni
Michelle Nguyen (BS, Microbiology, 2010)
The University of Texas Medical School at Houston (MD program)
Huong Tran (BS, Chemistry, 2010)
PhD (Chemistry), The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2016
Postdoc, DeGrado Laboratory, University of California - San Francisco
Daniel Ensign (Postdoctoral Scholar)
Two Sigma Investments, Houston, TX
Layking Chang (BS, Chemical Engineering)
Juana Rivas (Texas A&M University-Commerce, NSF REU Scholar)
Robert Newberry (BS, Biochemistry, 2011)
PhD (Chemistry), The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2016
Postdoc, DeGrado Laboratory, University of California - San Francisco
Ellen Hays (BS, Biochemistry, 2011)
The University of Washington (chemistry graduate program)
Wenhui Hu (MS, Chemistry, 2011)
Ignacio Gallardo (Postdoctoral Scholar)
Environmental Scientist, AECOM, Austin, TX
Nicholas Albanesi (BS, Neuroscience)
Coriyon Arrington (East Carolina University, NSF REU Scholar)
Ruifei Wang (BS, Aerospace Engineering)
Baylor College of Medicine (MD Program)
Nancy Gonzalez (BS, Chemistry, 2014)
Germain Martinez (BS, Chemistry)
Kristeen Onyirioha (BS, Chemistry, 2014)
University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center (MD Program)
David Walker (PhD, Biochemistry, 2014)
Postdoc, Harshey Laboratory, UT-Austin
Christina Ragain (PhD, Chemistry, 2014)
Department of Chemistry, Southeastern Missouri State University
Annette Raigoza (Postdoctoral Scholar)
Department of Chemistry, College of St. Benedict and St. John's University
Kjell Schroeder (PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, 2015)
Big Delta Systems, Houston, TX
Andrew Ritchie (PhD, Chemistry, 2015)
Epic, Madison, WI
Jason Dugger (PhD, Chemistry, 2015)
Postdoc, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Mahnoor Zia (BS Chemistry, 2015)
Texas A&M University (MD Program)
Seth Norman
Rebika Shrestha (PhD, Chemistry, 2016)
Postdoc, National Institutes of Health
Joshua Slocum (PhD, Chemistry, 2017)
Postdoc, UC-Boulder and JILA
Benjamin Chang (BS, Chemistry, 2017)
Desiree Fernandez (BS, Chemistry, 2019)
Santiago Sanchez (BS, Chemistry, 2017)
MPhill Program, Cambridge University, UK
Bella Shah (BS, Computer Science, 2017)
Lisa Strong (BS, Biochemistry, 2018)
PhD Program, UC-Berkely
Annie Zhang (BS, Chemistry, 2019)
Cari Anderson (PhD, Chemistry, 2019)
Intel Corp.
Elisa Novelli (PhD, Chemistry, 2019)
Intel Corp.
Jeremy First (PhD, Chemistry, 2019)
BP
Whitney Fies (PhD, Chemistry, 2019)
Molly Kogan (PhD, Chemistry, 2021)
Meso Scale Diagnostics
Henry Pan (PhD, Chemical Engineering, 2022)
Danielle Landry (BS, Chemistry, 2022)
Chad Drexler (Postdoctoral Scholar, 2023)
Exxon Mobile
Yu-Chun Lin (PhD, Chemistry, 2023)
LAM Research, Taiwan
Sydney Povilaitis (PhD, Chemistry, 2023)
Hamline University
Erich Wolff (MS, Chemistry, 2023)
Josh Correira (PhD, Chemistry, 2023)
Meso Scale Diagnostics
Morgan Mantsch (BS, Chemistry, 2023)
MD Anderson